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Wacky and weird superstitions to bring you luck playing Mega Moolah

There's no doubt that Mega Moolah is a massively popular slot and equally, there is no doubt that if you are going to win that massive jackpot prize, which is on the brink of crashing through the 8.2 million mark at the time of writing, then you need a massive slice of luck to land you the prize.

However, luck is sometimes with you and other times it is against you. We've all had runs on the slots or other games where every spin seems to be a winner, but by the same token, we have had periods when no matter what you do and what game you play, winning spins are conspicuous by their absence.

Harvesting luck in a positive way has led to many different cultures around the globe having a number of superstitions, customs, behaviours and beliefs that are claimed to bring them good fortune. While we cannot verify the authenticity of these (and to be frank, we doubt any truly work) if there is a way you could get a little good fortune to rub off on you when playing a slot, then there are people who will try it.

So to that end, outlined below are some of the superstitions from around the world, some well-known, some not so, that are all designed to bring the individual a healthy slice of luck.

Throwing broken dishes at houses - Denmark

If you are sat in your house in Aalborg and you hear the sound of plates smashing against your walls, don't think that you are under attack from an irate neighbour, it may just be your friends and family trying to ensure that you get nothing but good luck for the next 12 months to come.

This New Year's Eve tradition sees those that engage in it collect up their broken dishes from throughout the year until the 31st December. On this date, they go round to their friends and families homes and throw the broken crockery at their home to bring them good luck. Which while being a nice thought, does leave you wondering who clears up the mess in the morning.

An alternative and perhaps more friendly approach is for children to leave a pile of broken dishes on the doorsteps of friends and neighbours instead, which doesn't sound as much fun, but is also less likely to result in someone lobbing a broken teapot through your window in the early hours.

Wear red underwear and eat 12 grapes to chime in the New Year - Spain

This is one of my favourite ways to ensure an individual has a run of good fortune in a New Year. In Spain, it is believed that if you wear red underwear on New Year's Eve and then, with each chime of the clock signifying the start of the New Year, you chomp your way through one grape (12 in total), each grape signifying one month of the forthcoming year, then this will bring you good luck for the next 12 months.

Be warned though, it is not an easy task to eat a grape in such a short space of time between each of the chimes and with 12 to munch your way through, it is one of those traditions that sounds easier than it actually is.

Why the red underwear? This harks back to the Middle Ages when Spaniards were forbidden from wearing red clothes as it was considered to be a sign that you were in league with the devil. As such, people used to wear red underwear instead both through preference and also as a protest against the laws of the time.

Lucky bird poop - Russia

It has often been said that a bird splatting you on the head or shoulder is meant to bring about good luck and it is possible that the notion that this have you good fortune heralds from Russia. In Russian culture if a bird does this, then it is a sign that money will be falling into your hands very shortly.

Better still (or worse depending on your point of view), the more bird poop that is involved, the greater the amount of money that will be coming your way. Apparently, this good fortune will still apply to the individual if their home or car is the victim of a bird's toiletry habits, which may be good news for the bank balance, but will mean a fair bit more money spent on cleaning products.

Kissing the Blarney Stone - Ireland

The somewhat precarious practice of Kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Ireland, has long been a method that many have used to try and bring themselves good fortune along with the 'gift of the gab" and indeed, to this very day, long queues will form at the castle for people to pucker up, hang upside down and give the slab of carboniferous limestone a kiss.

The Irish are viewed by many as being one of the luckiest nations on earth so it is perhaps unsurprising that this legend has remained strong into modern times. What is certainly true is that luck doesn't come cheaply, with entry into the castle costing around €18 for adults.

Saying "White Rabbit" on the first day of a month - UK

One of the most common methods of attempting to bring about a period of good luck in the UK occurs at the start of every month when without fail, many people wake up in the morning on the 1st of a new month and will say "White Rabbits", "Rabbits" or even "Rabbit Rabbit".

The superstition seems to have been around since the start of the 20th century and there are rumours that famous US President Franklin Roosevelt was one advocate who ushered in every new month by uttering "Rabbit Rabbit" first thing in the morning.

This isn't the only way rabbits have been linked with luck in the UK. The Celts believed that rabbits could communicate with the underworld as they lived underground and so associated them with good luck. However, a rabbits foot being a symbol of good fortune dates back to North American and African-American communities, where they were regarded as being a symbol which could bring good fortune, particularly in terms of fertility, but over time this has become a symbol denoting good luck.

However, there are some less well known criteria for a rabbits foot being lucky. The foot has to be the left hind foot and somewhat oddly, the rabbit needs to have been captured or killed in a cemetery on a specific day, usually a Friday.

Plus of course, while a rabbits foot may be a good luck charm for human's, it's not particularly fortunate for any rabbit wandering around a graveyard on a Friday.

Eating beans on New Year's Eve - Argentina

In Argentina, times have been hard and one of the cheaper ways of bringing you luck for the year ahead is considered to be eating beans, either on New Years Eve or New Years Day.

The belief is that beans will bring the consumer good fortune and security in their job for the year ahead. As superstitions go, this is one of the cheapest and most easily affordable for many and perhaps is symptomatic of the tough economic times that have befallen the country and its population in both recent and past times.

Wearing a fake "lucky" penis - Thailand

How this even became a part of being lucky is beyond me and of course, this tends to be a male-only exclusive ritual, however there is a trend in Thailand where a man will wear a small fake penis (an amulet called a palad khik which translates into "honorable surrogate penis"). The amulet is worn tied to a piece of string around their waist, underneath their underwear in order to bring the wearer luck.

Different decorative penises can be worn to bring about different types good fortune, including one to prevent the wearer from becoming ill, one to make the wearer impervious to injury from weapons, one to increase their wealth or fortune with the opposite sex (although how that pans out later on down the line, is unfathomable to me) and there are lucky penises that can be worn to increase your luck when gambling.

Admittedly, this would not be my first choice to try and increase my chances of landing the Mega Moolah jackpot, but if you hear about the next big winner of the jackpot coming from Thailand, then it could well be that one of these lucky penises have worked their magic.

Interestingly, the Thai people were not the first to use such amulets, there are similar adornments that date back to Roman times, while similar charms have been found in other parts of the world, including North America and Nepal.